Rio Wada discovered her love for wine ten years ago, during her chef training in New York at a French bistro, Payard Patisserie & Bistro. She has been pairing wine and food together ever since, both professionally and for pleasure.

Over the past decade, Rio has worked in restaurants in Osaka, New York, and Stockholm in various capacities, including sommelier and restaurant manager. Her education includes culinary courses in Paris, Tokyo and Osaka. She has also taken multiple wine courses and studies, including one of New York’s premier classes with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust and the Institution of Culinary Education. An article from the New York Times.

Rio loves wines from all over the world and has visited many vineyards in Italy, Spain, New Zealand and extensively throughout France. During the summer of 2005, she was a finalist for the Wine Women Awards in Paris. An article from Wine Women Awards. She has also competed for Trophée de la Cuisine Provençal in the fall of 2006 in southern France, Sainte-Maxime, and came on third place. Articles from the competition. Sommeliers d'Europe, Wine and food pairing. In addition to her extensive knowledge of wine, she also is familiar with many sakes and traditional Japanese food. In the past few years she has been interesting in experimenting and gaining insight into the vast world of cheese.

Pairing wines with the extraordinarily diverse cuisines of the world is a life-long passion for Rio. In her spare time she loves travel, horticulture, exercise and to work on her progressing Swedish language skills.

Rio was born in Tokyo, Japan to a food loving family, and they ate out often, enabling her to experience various international cuisines from a young age. Her first dish, beyond baby-purified foods, was long simmered pig’s trotter at a bistro the family frequented. To this day her family still reminisces of Rio’s first notion as a gourmet epicure.